What about Near-Death Experiences? And Can Christians Believe in Reincarnation?

What happens when someone dies and then comes back to life? Did their spirit leave their body and then, come back?

Jesus died, and three days later, His spirit came back. When someone dies, their spirit leaves their body, but can be called back when their body is brought back to life, either by a medical procedure or miraculous intervention.

This is the difference between the Christian doctrine of resurrection and the idea of reincarnation. When a spirit is called back and re-enters its own body, we call that resurrection. If a spirit were to leave one body and then, enter into another body, that would be called reincarnation.

Can Christians believe in reincarnation?

Hebrews 9:27 – Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

People can’t be reincarnated. They either go to Heaven or Hell for eternity. There is simply no room for reincarnation in the Christian view of the afterlife. We will be resurrected (our souls will re-enter our bodies) when Christ comes again, but our souls will never enter a new body. We will never be reincarnated into a different body than the one we originally had.

What is the Spirit? Where did it Come From? Can it Die?

Genesis 1:26-27 – Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.

People are made in the image of God. God is God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. There are three “parts” or Persons of God.

People also have three parts. We are made up of our body, our mind, and our spirit. The body houses the mind and the spirit. If the body dies, the mind also dies, and the spirit departs.

But what about cases where the brain stops functioning and someone is in a vegetative state without a conscious awareness? What happens to their spirit, then? Is it trapped in that person’s body until the life-support machines are turned off and their body finally dies?

The spirit is in the body until it dies, just as the mind is, but in a non-functioning capacity. Neither is the spirit an independent consciousness within the body. The spirit does not think on its own and therefore does not feel trapped in a vegetative body. It does not want to leave the body. It is simply there, like any other part of you, say a hand or an eye, until the body dies. Then, it leaves.

So, the body dies, and the spirit lives on. But can the spirit die at some point? Do we have such a thing as an immortal soul?

Though originally given to us by the breath of God, our spirits are not immortal. Only God is immortal. God created our spirits, and our spirits live on only because God wills them to do. God is the only thing that absolutely cannot die.